daddy's money being a brat? >> a good question, i often is ask myself that. >> piers: rashida jones and patricia cornwell tomorrow night. hello, i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. i'm nina dos santos in london. welcome to "world business today" with our continuing coverage of the search and struggle for a solution to the debt crisis in europe. >> so once again the european union has proven itself anything but. today was meant to it be finality friday, the day when they got their fiscal house in order. euro zone leaders wanted a treaty change signed by up a27

eu nations. at 5:00 a.m. in brussels, a weary nicolas sarkozy confirmed that britain was not playing ball. >> translator: david cameron requested something which we all considered unacceptable, namely that there be a protocol written into the treaty which enabled the uk to opt out of a certain number of rules applying to financial services. we're not able to accept that. we consider quite the contrary. >> so the 17 euro zone members along with 6 others in favor must now press on with what's being called an intergovernmental agreement. their goals, well, to introduce binding control on the budgets of those 17 countries, also to implement a new fund known as the european stability mechanism capped at 500 billion euros by

july. to lend a further 200 billion euros to the imf with a view to supporting nations in need. and already the ecb's guidance to steer the current bailout fund, the esfs beyond the threat of a credit downgrade. it's almost the bazooka they wanted but far short of what they wanted. it wasn't just britain opting out either, was it? >> no. the czech republic and sweden said they need time to think and hungary on the other hand just flatly said no. as the united kingdom's main rejoction, the tenacity behind that particular rejectment. take a listen. >> i wasn't prepared to agree that treaty, take it to my parliament in that way and that is why i rejected signing this treaty today. the right thing for britain, a tough decision but the right e one. >> the prime minister, david

cameron, claims the treaty change would not protect britain's prized financial sector from the debt of his euro zone neighbors. in his scathing statement, he showed how much he wanted to keep his distance. >> we're a key member of the single market. we drive change in the single market but we're not in the euro. i'm glad we're not in the euro. >> he's standing his ground and ever further away from his continental counterparts. andrew? >> there was little time for any of the leaders to rest before the european summit began in ernest. croatia signed the eu succession treaty. its government might wonder what it's gotten itself into. let's go to jim boulden, live in brussels. let's talk about what the deal is. it's not a deep success. it's foot a deep failure. is it good enough? >> reporter: well, it's going to

have to be good enough for now, isn't it? it's probably good the fact that they were able to decide pretty early that it would be 17 plus 6, not the 27. if they had gone all through today and late tonight said we can't come to an agreement and then tell us all the changes that were coming, that might have been hard to swallow. so now we know that there is this new idea that we already knew a lot about that came from france and germany earlier this week. we have a lot more of the detail coulding out in the press releases. we know that will have to be worked on now until the end of march when there would be yet another summit, of course. these other countries said we're not going to be interested, we're not going to be involved. at least we can move forward with how this fiscal compact will work. you're talking about auto correction mechanisms. if countries violate the new rules, they'd have automatic penalties. we're talking about specific numbers of where the budget should be.

the countries that have signed up are going to have to follow these rules, we hope, in order to have the euro survive. we have something on paper and we know exactly who will it follow and we know exactly who will not follow. i think that is progress, andrew. >> as you point out, we've still got a few months, jim, basically until the end of march. are the financial markets prepared to wait that long? can things still go wrong between now and march or is it a matter of rubber stamping the next stages? >> no, of course things can go wrong. i stood here in march and talked to you. i stood here in july and talked to you. nina stood here and talked to you about this in october. every time within days we knew it didn't work. we saw the markets down a little bit. look at what happened already this week when we had a little bit of this leaked. the markets seemed to like it. mario draghi from the european

central bank did stop the cameras a few hours ago. he said he thought it was a very good outcome for euro area members. it's not usual you would have the ecb staff stop and talk to cameras. we don't know what the ecb would do after this, of course. he's please, lagarde from the imf is pleased. you're getting positive results coming out of those people on the outside sort of who have a lot of influence on this that at least now we have this treaty, we have this mechanism. we have this agreement. it may not be all 27 but it's close. >> okay, jim, thanks very much for that. jim boulden live from brussels. nina? andrew, we're covering all sides to this particular story from the politics to the people directly affected by the crisis. and later this hour we'll be in greece, ground zero the euro zone meltdown, homelessness has been on the rise there for a number of months. as harsh spending cuts force people on to the streets.

then we're going to be going back to brussels to talk to european council cabinet member richard corbett about the political divisions in the belgian capital. >> i want to go back to something jim was talking about there, the market reaction. we saw the markets here in asia negative. in europe they've been in and out of positive territory. investors are reacting not just to these divisions we've seen in europe and the deal being down but also to the fact there's been no real moves on finding a solution to the immediate crisis. now, hsbc senior economist fred newman says the markets want to see action on that front. >> it's clear that the political solution will take some time. and so markets are very impatient and they want, in particular, the ecb to provide much more support for financial markets, which would include an expansion of the balance sheet of the central bank which is equal to quantitative easing, what the federal reserve has done in the united states, for example. >> so if there's no action from

the ecb in the coming days, what could happen? >> pressure on bond markets could continue and we've seen not only italian bonds and spanish bonds come under pressure but even the government bond market in germany, for example, the very heart of the euro zone could come under pressure if there isn't a signal that the ecb will provide even more support to financial markets in europe. >> yes, this is the signal. this is the interesting one now, isn't it, nina? it's interesting that the ecb is not going where the fed's gone, the bank of japan's gone, the bank of england's gone, quantitative easing, because it's concerned about inflationary problems and the moral hazard side. by doing all this new quantitative easing with be it lets countries like italy and to a lesser degree, spain, off the hook. that seems to be a stumbling point for the ecb, nina.

>> to keep prices fixed and stable, somewhere near around 2%. they haven't wavered from that right during this crisis. although draghi has cut interest rates twice during the first two meetings he has chaired in his role as head of the ecb. let's take a look at the markets. we have cautious optimism coming back, bubbling up to the center. these are still markets that are pretty weak. they did start the day on a negative note on the back of concerns about the position of the united kingdom and now that these new budgetary rules will, it seems, perhaps, only apply to 17 members, that is the first hurdle that's been overcome, it was expected but it is, perhaps, still a disappointment for the leaders of france and germany. >> nina, there's been a lot of commentary about britain, david cameron's position, and about how damaging it is for him and

britain in europe. what's your read on that? has britain put itself in a very difficult position now as far as its relations are concerned with europe? >> there's been a lot of concerns about this particular decision. and perhaps the kind of strong language that was used andrew to communicate it. we were showing this off five minutes ago. there's been concerns that may perhaps lead to a short-term gain for the uk financial sector and david cameron. in the long term it could mean countries like the united kingdom, huge powerhouses at the european union economically speaking could become more and more isolated. on the one hand we're an island country but we don't want to become too economically isolated either. when david cameron says he wants to protect britain's financial interests, take a look at the ftse aets pefoots ftse's performance over the past years. if we compare that to other

markets across the euro zone, particularly the protagonists and also some of the ones having more trouble, starting out with the dax, take a look at that. this is europe's strongest economy, germany here. its main benchmark is down by 16% during the same period. the ftse has performed much, much better there. also france's main index is down by nearly 20% over the period and italy is one of those countries that people are concerned about, perhaps needing a bailout, seems as though that has been moved off the cards for the meantime. at one point, this country had bond yields spiking way beyond the levels that caused other countries, like, for instance, greece here to get a bailout, portugal, et cetera. if you take a look at the way their mark pets have performed, italy's midindex in milan is down 26% to 27% and the athens stock exchange has seen about half of its market value wiped off over the course of the same period. and the ftse is only down by 6%. andrew?

>> yes. take a look at the numbers here in asia. this is the knee-jerk reaction to the news as it came out of europe. the markets here were open. that's how you see the interpretation pretty grim. not surprisingly, hong kong, one of the big losers because there are so many banking stocks. hsbc, the big bank down 3.7%, bank of china down 3.1%. in australia, reflection of the worries of the state of the economy, bhp billitan down as well. investors watching a slew of economic data out from china today. inflation, good news here, rising at its slowest pace in 14 months. 4.2% compared to 5.5% in october. that's the fourth straight month of weakening inflation, helped by falling food and commodity prices. this is what the chinese government wants to see. take a look at this, industrial production down now at its

lowest rate since august of 2009. falling sharper than expected, up by 12.5% sounds good at face value compared with 13.2% but it's still showing quite a strong weakness there. there was a positive, it came in the retail sales figure which is good for domestic deman. it beat expectations, freed ourselves up 17.3% in november. slightly better than 17.2% in october. there's a few mixed messages. the overall theme is the chinese economy continues to slow. up next on "world business today," andrew, dominique strauss-kahn maintained his innocence right from the start. now new footage has emerged from that fateful day back in may now that charges have been dropped. neutrogena® t/gel shampoo defeats dandruff after just one use. t/gel shampoo. it works. neutrogena®.

welcome back. you're watching "world business today." let's take a look at some of the other top business stories this hour. you're looking here at the newly

obtained footage from the british broadcaster, bfm television. it appears to show the rather casual departure from the sofitel hotel in new york about 20 minutes after it was claimed he sexually assaulted a chamber made, not him fleeing from the scene as authorities said at the time. the maid is seen several times in the footage, here sitting in a hallway talking to two men. they're described as her boss and a hotel security manager. there's no sound so it's hard to tell what they're doing. they do appear to be celebrating something, slapping hands, hugging, even doing a jig. soon police arrive and take control of the situation. nina? >> the former ceo of bankrupt broker mf global jon corzine apologized for his firm's failure on capitol hill on thursday. as investigators try to find out what exactly happened to an estimated $1.2 billion that

should have been in customers' accounts, corzine had this to say. >> i simply do not know where the money is. >> the lengthy testimony was corzine's first public response since mf global's failure back in october. >> the online retailer amazon has dealt another blow to the high street. it's offering shoppers a discount through its website if they use its price match app in the stores. users will be entitled to a discount of up to $15. it may not sound like much but high street retailers may see it as another nail in their proverbial coffin. going back to the story at the moment of the european sovereign debt crisis. greece has been at the heart of it since day win. we have a report now on the whole new generation living on the streets.

>> reporter: scenes like this would have been a rarity until a few years ago. but this is greece's new street of despair. there are the new homeless, a new generation of the street who, until recently, had a shelter, job and a mortgage. you don't need to look very far to see the country's financial crisis is rapidly turning into a social one. in just one year, soup kitchens have seen a 20% rise in the number of people who rely on them for their daily food. >> there are people who come here for first time. they lose their job from the crisis. they go down and come. the only place where they feel safe is here to take some food.

>> reporter: 51-year-old yoris is one of these people. he's been coming here every day for the past year. his story paints a picture of the crisis to hit greece. until a few years ago he had a job as a baker but the company had to downsize as demand dropped due to the recession. >> when we had the money, we didn't manage it properly. we are here now begging for a plate of food. if someone told me ten years ago that i would be here, i would have take tonight as a joke, if nothing worse. >> reporter: thousands of people have lost their jobs as a result of the financial crisis in greece. and an increasing number are finding it difficult to pay their bills. for some there's little choice but to sleep rough on the streets. many of these new homeless are people who have been made redundant in the last couple of years. unemployment has skyrocketed by over 6% in three years and is forecast to go higher in greece. largely due to the massive cuts

in the bloated public sector. a prerequisite by the country's lenders for greece to continue receiving the money of a bailout package to prevent it from defaulting on its debts. this musician has been living at this shelter operated by an ngo for a month now. he says there are thousands like him who have not been as fortunates so to find a bed. >> i live here. i sleep here in this bed. and every night you see all the people that have no bed, no shelter, go out. there are many people. and it's shocking, because you can't imagine where are they going now? where are they going to sleep? to protect themselves? for me it's shocking and i'm homeless. >> reporter: the ngo says homelessness is 25% higher than last year, placing numbers at around 20,000. the government says it is conducting a study to get the exact figure.

in the last year, there has been a 40% decrease in hospital spending. and at the same time, there's been a two-fold increase in admissions. as people can no longer afford private care. add to that the 2012 budget which foresees more cuts in health spending. the government says next year there may be less money but promises it will be better managed, enabling them to do more with less. >> we believe that cuts in spending should not be the problem. we are approaching the issue of restructuring the financial management of the capital we already have. >> reporter: to yesterday's home owners who are today faced with living on the streets and on handouts, these words are of little relief. cnn, athens. a sovereign debt crisis,

what it actually means. sticking with the debt crisis and issues of global concern, the u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon will give us his thoughts on europe in just a moment. and how much durbin's climate change conference has achieved.

after two weeks of talk, the summit in durbin is wrapping up today. delegates from all around the

world have yet to commit to any comprehensive or legally bind g ing agreement to -- that would include an extension of the existing kyoto protocol. that appears to be a big shift from its earlier position. the head of the summit says that china is making all of the right moves. >> it has very clear targets for renewable energy, energy efficiency, the building environment, for reforestation, all the sectors that actually are emitting sectors. we should all be doing what china's doing. they are the model. >> very strong endorsement there of china's actions. well, the u.n. summit on climate change is now winding down against a backdrop of uncertainty in europe.

earlier robin sat down with ban ki-moon to get his thoughts on this year's climate conference and his views on europe's debt crisis. >> my higs has been consistently clear and loud. it's important for world leaders to overcome this economy crisis. i would recommend strongly for them domestic stimulus packages. but at the same time they should never lose sight of the plight and challenges of many poorest of countries, most countries who do not have any capacity and who are just impacted by this global economic crisis. so why don they pay more attention on development? >> are you very worried then about contagion globally from the eu crisis? >> it is important that the

european leaders contain this and overcome this crisis as soon as possible. >> do you feel like there's been perhaps a failure of leadership at the moment? >> i don't think it is a failure of leadership. european union, they're all interconnected, thus this impact has been affecting all the european countries, unfortunately. now their leaders have been united and they've been meeting very often and i'm very much encouraged by what friend and leaders have been working very closely with leadership. i hope that this euro zone crisis will be overcome as soon as possible. >> in the hopes of millions of people no doubt. that was the u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon speaking earlier with robin kerner.

nina? stay tuned. after the break we go back to brussels to speak with the senior diplomat at the heat of those euro zone crisis talks.

hello and welcome back to "world business today" with continuing coverage of the crucial debt crisis summit under way in europe. i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. >> i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. well, there will be a european fiscal union, it just won't be 27 countries in it. the uk and hungary have both opted out of the treaty change

intended to protect troubled euro zone economies, believing they won't be protected from inherent risks. now the czech republic and sweden on stained. we're left with 23 nations. 17 of them euro zone members, forging ahead with a plan to conquer the debt crisis. a new fund call the european stability mechanism will be capped at 500 billion euros and compliment the existing european financial stability fund. and the imf will receive a further 200 billion euros to safeguard the region's financial future. >> it has to do with pretty big problems there. if the french president nicolas sarkozy was heartened by the progress of the progress made overnight, he did a good job of hiding it. he was asked if a union without key members might compromise the euro zone? >> translator: we are doing everything we can to save the euro.

and don't forget that the uk negotiated an opt-out clause so as not to have to join the euro. now you're telling we are the ones who have created a two-speed europe. it is their choice, not our choice. they wanted to be in europe but not within the euro zone. >> as much as mr. sarkozy has been referring to his british friends during this morning's news conference, it seems as though the cracks are once again showing to find out just how wide they might become from here on. let's go to someone with a live front-row seat in these negotiations, cabinet member richard corbett live from brussels. thanks for coming on "world business today," richard corbett. you're in an interesting position because you're a cabinet member of the body that's actually steering these discussions but you're also british. what's your reaction to david cameron's move here?

>> good morning. i think the key thing is that the euro zone countries themselves are taking and have agreed certain measures to help stabilize the euro in the longer term. it was important to compliment the short-term measures that have been adopted with a longer term perspective so that the markets know just isn't effects for the next few weeks. there's a long-term plan to address the issues in those countries with excessive debt. >> then again, that does the address the issue of david cameron saying he wanted safeguards for uk interests, in particular in the financial services sector and that really has been a major road block. does going forward with only 17 euro zone members instead of the full 27 present problems? >> no, because this is about addressing sovereign debt problems of the countries that are in the euro. i know there are many countries

across the world with sovereign debt problems but here within the euro zone there is firstly a system for helping such countries with loans to give them time to turn the corner but also because of potential spillover effects within the euro zone and so on, it was important to try and make sure we never got into this situation again, hence these reforms. whether or not countries outside the euro join in this effort is secondary to the fact that the euro zone countries themselves have all agreed and some others, to make this effort together. >> there has been a lot of concerns about a two-tier or two-speed europe potentially emerging with, on the one hand, the 17 euro zone countries going it alone and the other ten that aren't part of the euro diverging from that. is that something that you, the european council, will be worried about four years from now? >> it's important to remember that the divergence you refer to

is on one particular policy area. the bulk of policy areas that the eu deals with, even the bulk of economic policy making will be at the level of 27. we have a single european market, indeed the world's largest market with common rules for that policy. environmental standards, consumer protection rules. we'll continue to be done at the level of 27. external trade policy as well. and all the things that relate to external economic relations will still be done at the level of all 27. so one can, of course, overemphasize this divergence. the bulk of the eu, the core business of the eu remains something that is for every member state. >> angela merkel, the german chancellor, let's say, pulled no punches when she was asked this particular question, that i asked you before. she said we really don't have time to negotiate with weak and uncommitted members of the

europe onuan europe on. >> i'm not going to comment on what individual leaders say and member states say about each other. they will all have their views. the job of the president who i advise, his job is to get consensus from all 27 member states. it's not an easy task, 27 democracies after all having different view points and reaching conclusions, that's natural. his task is to bridge the gaps and find a way forward. this time a way forward has been found. it may not be what everybody wanted at the beginning but it is still a way forward. >> richard, just briefly, how confident are you that we'll see some final lasting incredible solution after this summit before the year's end?

>> i think this is another step forward. every summit has taken a number of measures. if you add them all together. they are beginning to add up to quite an impressive list of reforms and measures taken to help those countries that have excessive debt problems to turn the corner and ensure the stability of the euro system as a whole. we've come a long way and i'm confident that we will continue to progress. >> richard corbett, thank you very much there. that's richard corbett there, an eu cabinet council member joining us from brussels. we appreciate your time on "world business today." don't forget, the conversation continues online with plenty more information and analysis on the crisis in europe. and in a shameless plug, why not check out my very own blog on this particular subject. it talks about why european leaders areplaying a dangerous game these days in brussels. you can access is at cnn.com/international.

we're about 09 minutes into friday's trading session. it's been a choppy first hour and a half of trading to say the least. last time we looked at these markets they were all green. they started out the day losing momentum on the back of concerns about a rift between the 17 euro zone countries and the other 10 that are part of the eu but don't have the euro on the back of david cameron's move to say he would not be backing any eu treaty if it didn't have safeguards for british industry. the only one that's rising is the cac 40 in paris. andrew. we saw that on wall street yesterday, nina. we saw investors really responding to headlines coming across the wires. that's what we've seen. that's continuation today. here in asia, you see there the down day fairly significant down day, certainly for hong kong, about concerns on what actually

came out of brussels in the end. this is more of a knee jerk reaction, the markets, most of the markets are closed several hours ago except hong kong, just a couple of hours ago. hong kong also having a few issues as china inflation numbers coming out which look pretty good. they tie together with not such good numbers on industrial production in china, showing the economy continues to slow. that's casting a separate concern over the markets, particularly the east asian markets there. just one other thing to tell you about, a report in "the financial times," chow tai fook, a hong kong-based jue jewelry company, the report says it looks like it's about to raise $2 billion from its ipo. they were reportedly looking for $2.8 billion which would have made it the biggest ipo in hong kong this year. currently that is held by prada which raised 2.5 billion.

chow tai folks, it looks like it's at the low end, $2 billion. the caution here, you can see clearly in the markets, nina. see if there's caution when trading begins on wall street. they look set for slightly higher open when trading begins later on friday. anything could change between now and about five hours time. >> and that's about it from us. thanks so much for joining us. i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. i'm nina dos santos in london. we'll see you again soon for the next edition of "world business today" in about four hour's time. nyquil (stuffy): hey, tylenol. you know we're kinda like twins. tylenol: we are? nyquil (stuffy): yeah, we both relieve coughs, sneezing, aches, fevers. tylenol: and i relieve nasal congestion. nyquil (stuffy): overachiever. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't.

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[ electronic beeping ] [ male announcer ] still getting dandruff? neutrogena® t/gel shampoo defeats dandruff after just one use. t/gel shampoo. it works. neutrogena®. this week on "marketplace middle east" -- >> successful in the last six, seven, eight years because we see the political issue and the economic issue. >> concerns over crude as tension grow over events in iran and syria, we sit down with opec's secretary general to talk about oil over $100 a barrel. plus, investing in kurdis n kurdistan, a look into a small company's grand entry into the region's oil industry. oil prices rose this week as tensions with iran resurfaced

following increased pressure by the european union. the latest measures will target 180 individuals and organizations. the european union imports nearly 900,000 barrels of crude mainly to southern europe. they told a newspaper sanctions could push the price of oil over $250 a barrel. iran is a long-serve member of opec and is the second largest producer in organization, exporting more than 2 million barrels a day on production of more than 3.5 million barrels a day. it is likely any sanctions on tehran will cause oil prices to spike. abdalla salemel-badri weighed in. >> if you ask my advice, nobody's asked my advice, but i would say i don't think it is

wise to cut that supply to europe. >> one thing that has to be improved is to have a much better dialogue between saudi arabia and iran. it was quite acromoanious two years ago. how do they see eye to eye on what the market needs today. >> we would like to separate between the political issues and the economic issues. successful in the last six, seven, eight years because we separate between the political issue and the economic issue. when we meet we talk about the economic issue. >> we're living in the opec world right now of actual supplies of about 29.5 million barrels a day. isn't it time to actually put up a production agreement or an actual quota that meets reality? you're about 5 million barrels above the old quota today. >> it's true but at the same time you have one of 11 member

countries out. the 11 member countries agree on this production and location. libya is out. and libya will not come back with a normal production before this problem started, before june 2012. so i don't see that there is an agreement as far as production and location before june of 2012. >> libya is surprising everybody, at 950,000 barrels a day, not 500,000 barrels a day. you think they can get back to full production of 1.6 million barrels a day by june of 2012. >> they are not surprising me. i know the libyan export. they work hard to do it even with the very, very difficult situation but they were able to go there. they were able to produce the oil. they are increasing the production. they will produce maybe 1.5,

1.6. >> we're going to finish 2011 having averaged well over $100 a barrel for north sea brent crude for the first time in history. and a climate where the european union struggled to grow and so would the united states. that would suggest we're entering a new reality. >> $100, everybody is comfortable with. and also consumer comfortable with. i think the government of some of the consumer nations, they like, they like this price because they are generating also income. they are generating more income from our export than our member countries. >> discussing a comfortable price of oil was a key theme for oil majors attending the oil conference in doha this week. royal dutch shell signed a $6.4 billion deal to build a petro chemical plan the in the qatar

state. qatar petroleum will have an 80% stake and shell will have the remainder. the company announced it will pull out of syria as it moves into qatar. it comes after eu sanctions that restrict oil production and contracts with the eu government. totale says it will comply with the sanctions. we take a look at neighboring iraq's lucrative oil industry and one small company that's made it big after a new discovery in kurdistan. ds. and i'm gonna need to see a receipt for that watch you're wearing. you know, you really should provide us with a checklist of documents we're gonna need up front. who do you think i am? quicken loans? at quicken loans, we provide a checklist of the mortgage documents you'll need up front. it helps keep you in the know every step of the way.

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iraq sits on the world's fifth largest oil reserve and now more oil is being discovered

in the semiautonomous region of kurdistan. gulf keystone, established a decade ago, the independent firm ventured into northern iraq back in 2007 where it made one of the largest recent discoveries in the middle east. arwa damon takes a look at the company making it big despite all the dangers. >> reporter: it's an oil man's dream. gulf keystone started as a small player in the oil business. and then it did the unconventional. the company began drilling in iraq in the semiautonomous region of kurdistan. >> this is where it all started. >> reporter: drill manager michael chisnall says they initially estimated there would be around 1 billion barrels of oil. the more wells they drilled, the more the shahan oil field deified their wildest imagination. >> it's turned out to be something we never, ever would

have dreamed that it would be this size. it's now an oil field of 8 to 13.5 billion barrels. that's one of the largest oil fields discovered in this part of the world in history. >> reporter: todd kozel, the company's ceo first came to kurdistan at a time when few dare to invest. >> after visiting kurdistan in june of 2006 and literally seeing oil running down rocks, fascinated, i couldn't go back to an old life. >> reporter: these oil seeps are what he saw. others have been just as intoxicated, as more oil industry players realized the potential cash cow at their disposal. oil rigs are mushrooming all over, in the hills, on the outskirts of cities. for the time being, the region of kurdistan lacks both the expertise and the technology to exploit its own natural wealth. and that has turned these lands into the wild west for foreign

oil companies rushing here to stake their claim. the exploration is entirely driven by and reline on foreign companies able to shoulder the financial risk. gulf keystone, for example, says they've invested $350 million to date. what they received in return speaks for itself. >> our market cap was 45 million pounds in august of 2009. our market cap currently is 1.6 billion pounds as a result of the shakan discovery. >> reporter: now that the little guy made it big in kurdistan, at least one major player, exxon, has cut its own deal. the kurdistan regional government signs profit-sharing deals much to the ire of baghdad and they are still unable to pass a hydrocarbons law. the revenues still cycle back to central iraq. private investment in kurdistan

has soared as well. in excess, the kurdistan regional government says of $16 billion. s aideal as it all sounds, there are very serious concerns. in the rush to develop the region's prime minister tells us the potential impact on the environment of drilling so much so quickly has not been addressed. >> well, i read history and we must be careful as a government, as a community to make sure it is a win/win situation for the companies as well as for the community, the country. in that regard we have these oil contracts that have stipulations in these, transparency is very important, i think for us as well as the companies to making sure that the money that is generated from these revenues go back to the communities, go back to the people. >> reporter: key in an area rife with corruption. ensuring revenues go to the public and not the privileged few.

the oil man's dream, turning into the people's nightmare. arwa damon for "marketplace middle east" in the shahan oil fields in northern iraq. dubai's debt problems. moody's says debt linked to dubai state-owned countries has amounted to more than $100 million. dubai repaid, refinanced or restructured outstanding obligations. moody's warns they may need further assistance in 2012. ruler of dubai and the prime minister of the uae says he's focused on keeping up momentum. >> we get out of the crisis and now we're back building again. just to remind you when the crisis, you know, tourist spending was completed, the metro was completed. all the big projects we did not stop. we only stopped some project was in the paper for a year or two.

>> after that interview, the head of dubai's supreme fiscal committee said the emirate will see through dubai's government-related entities, obligations in 2012. for more about the program visit our website, cnn.com/mme or send comments by e-mail. also, check out the web page in arabic at arabic.cnn.com/mme. i'm john defterios, this is "marketplace middle east." thanks for watching. see you next week.